Spicy Turkey Soup with Yogurt, Chickpeas, and Mint

A great way to use up turkey leftovers! Spicy Turkish soup with a yogurt and turkey stock base, chickpeas, rice, cayenne, paprika, mint, and lemon.

Photography Credit:
Elise Bauer

I will be the first to admit that I love my mother’s turkey soup, the one she makes with the turkey carcass and leftover turkey from Thanksgiving dinner.

That said, by the time the fourth day of eating leftovers comes around, I am just a little bit tired of the same ole same ole turkey taste and usually don’t want to see another turkey recipe for another year.

If any of you feel the same way, I encourage you to give this turkey soup recipe a try. The original recipe is from Joyce Goldstein, and called for chicken.

My friend and neighbor Evie Lieb prepared this soup for a group of us recently and all I could think of was how well it would work with leftover turkey (while going back for seconds and thirds).

Well, I made it a few days ago and can’t stop eating it!

It’s tangy and spicy and completely holds up to the strong flavor of the turkey (including the thigh meat I used when testing). Ever have tom kha gai, the Thai coconut milk, chicken, lemongrass soup?

That’s what this soup reminds me of the most in terms of the flavors. It’s also really easy to make, if you are working with turkey leftovers, it cooks up in a little more time than it takes to cook the rice.

Spicy Turkey Soup with Yogurt, Chickpeas, and Mint Recipe

Prep time:10 minutes

Cook time:35 minutes

Yield:Serves 4-6

This recipe I adapted to use with leftover Thanksgiving turkey and freshly made turkey stock. You can also make this starting with raw turkey, with 2 pounds of bone-in, skin-on turkey thighs or legs (thighs are easier to work with). Place the turkey parts in a pot with half an onion, a chopped carrot, and a sprig of parsley. Cover with cold water by an inch. Bring to a simmer and cook until the turkey is cooked through, about 45 minutes to an hour. Remove turkey to a plate and let cool. Pour pot contents through a strainer into a bowl to capture the stock. Once the turkey meat has cooled, remove and discard the skins and bones. Cut the meat into 1-inch pieces. Now you should have enough stock and turkey meat for this recipe.

Method

1 Cook the rice: Bring water, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and rice to a boil in a small saucepan. Reduce heat to a low simmer, cover, and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit for 10 minutes.

2 Heat the turkey stock: In a medium saucepan, add the turkey stock and bring to a simmer, remove from heat. (If you are like us, and make your own homemade turkey stock and store it in glass jars, you can remove the lid from the jar and heat the stock in the microwave. You are just trying to warm up the stock in this step.)

3 Add stock to yogurt, egg yolk, flour: Whisk together the yogurt, egg yolk, and flour in a large pot. Slowly add the heated stock, whisking after each small addition to incorporate. Heat to a simmer.

5 Make paprika butter sauce: Melt the butter on medium heat in a small skillet. Stir in the garlic, paprika, and cayenne pepper. Cook for a couple minutes, until fragrant, then remove from heat.

6 Serve: Serve soup with a small amount of paprika butter sauce swirled on the surface. Sprinkle with chopped mint. Serve with lemon wedges. Squeeze lemon juice from the wedges onto the soup before eating.

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Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family's recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.

9 Comments / Reviews

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Scott Doern

Made this soup tonight and it was delicious. Followed the soup recipe only as I had made stock earlier. Very flavourful and I would recommend this as a nice alternative to traditional turkey soup. If you like this style of flavouring, you will love this soup., Thanks for posting,

I bought a lot of turkeys, because they were dirt cheap, and I got pretty sick of the turkey taste. This soup is much better then traditional turkey soup. You cant taste the yogurt, it just adds a little zing. I’ll make this again for sure!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this recipe and have made it so many times since first reading it last November. The first time I made it, I followed the recipe to a “T”…..almost. I got all of the ingredients into the pot and decided it was all too beige and needed a little color. I added some canned julienne carrots and some capers (just a little). Most of the time, I pick up a rotisserie chicken. YUM YUM! Thanks!

I attended Evie’s class w/ you and can attest to the fantastic flavors of this soup. Just unique enough to grab your attention, and goes together very easily w/ leftovers from turkey and Chinese take out :-) (think: rice). Because of a kosher leaning diet, I am searching for a good substitute for the yogurt that will a) hold up to heat and b) give similar flavor. Any thoughts on this challenge?

This recipe is great! I made one little change because I didn’t have any paprika in the house. I used New Mexico chile powder instead. At this moment I’m eating it reheated for lunch and it’s fantastic. Thanks for the recipe!Steve

This is a great recipe! I modified it some by using the leftover turkey carcass and letting all ingredients simmer in my crockpot for about 8 hours with the carcass. In every other way I pretty much followed the recipe, adding a little more lemon juice and more paprika. It was fantastic but I had to spend some time picking the bones out. There is always so much meat still stuck on the turkey bones, it seems a shame to waste it every year! DEEE-licous!! Thank you!!